We might be sweltering amidst the best summer in memory while lapping up cool pints and the best World Cup tournament for donkey’s years, but the countdown to the new football season began in earnest this week with the return to pre-season training of the majority of the Stoke City players.

It was a somewhat bewildering opportunity to recall just who we have signed to the club and ponder how on earth we got ourselves into this mess.

Seeing Bojan prompted thoughts of “Stokelona” and those back-to-back slayings of the Manchester clubs in 2015.

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Even though Peter Crouch wasn’t in evidence in person as he is apparently having a small operation, he has been seen in various festival mosh pits over the summer. The big man just can’t keep out of the headlines, can he?

Bidding farewell this week to Marc Muniesa also reminded us of the little man’s beaming smile and talented left foot. It was just such a shame he spent so much time afflicted by injury. His partnership with Ryan Shawcross, especially towards the end of the first season under Mark Hughes, was a blend of power, strength and skill.

There’s been good news, of course, and Wednesday saw the arrival of new signing Benik Afobe and the continued presence of Joe Allen, settled enough at Stoke to pledge effectively the rest of his career to the club to get us back into the Premier League.

Mind you, realistically he’ll only be giving us one go at getting back into the big time. I’d expect him to move on if we fail to win promotion this coming campaign.

Stoke City players working out in pre-season under Gary Rowett. (Image: Phil Radcliffe)

Missing from Wednesday’s gathering were Karo Etebo and Xherdan Shaqiri, the one recently departed from the World Cup despite performances of boundless energy and verve for Nigeria, the latter still in the tournament and potentially on course for a quarter-final meeting against England with Switzerland.

There is plenty to do for the new manager, and not just in the transfer market. He also has to set the new team’s pattern of play and philosophy and embed his new coaching set up as well as getting in the players he needs.

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Wednesday reminded us that he has plenty of raw talent and experience to work with. But as last season showed, there is no guarantee of success based on those qualities alone.

So to hear from Stoke players that they were being made to work extremely hard from day one was great as far as I am concerned. There’s been too much about the club that has been lackadaisical for anything up to three years.

But the huge question that remains to be answered is whether Rowett can get a tune out of the talent within the squad he inherited or will his wheeling and dealing be the crucial element that feeds Stoke’s successful push for a quick return to the Premier League?

In that sense the first day of pre-season training raised far more questions than it could possibly answer, given where the team is right now. So while the hard work starts here for the players, it is all the more so for Rowett, his impressive-looking coaching team and the Stoke City recruitment set-up.